Welcome to the Centre for Ancient Cultures

The principal aim of the Centre for Ancient Cultures is to expand students’ awareness and knowledge of the archaeology, history and legacy of key civilisations of the ancient Mediterranean. We offer a Bachelor of Arts program in Archaeology (Major, Minor, and Honours degrees) as well as postgraduate study in Ancient Cultures. Our approach is multi-disciplinary; we incorporate information from archaeology, history, classics, anthropology, art history, landscape studies, archaeozoology, and archaeobotany to create a broad and deep view of the ancient world. Core studies include pathways that focus on Egypt, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Persia, Ancient Greece and Rome.

Study of the ancient world and its riches contributes to more holistic perspectives. The ancient Mediterranean world profoundly influenced our own culture’s understanding of a broad range of disciplines including political science, philosophy, art, theatre, mathematics, astronomy, and engineering; students are encouraged to relate their studies in the Centre for Ancient Cultures to those that they undertake elsewhere in the faculty. We believe that by studying the past students will be able to assess the present more wisely.

NOTE ON OUR NAME CHANGE:

The Centre for Ancient Cultures will be changing the name of its Bachelor of Arts Major, Minor and Honours degrees to Archaeology! We will continue to offer a broad range of units that will explore both the rich material culture and lively historical texts that inform us about the cultures of the Ancient Mediterranean world. The names of some units have changed, and some new units are being offered (look under Archaeology in the Monash handbook), but the unit codes, content, and basic structure of the programme remain the same. Students who enrolled prior to 2018 will follow the requirements in place at the time they enrolled, so if you’ve already started your journey into the ancient world, don’t worry, it will be smooth sailing along the same course going forward.

News

The Dakhleh Oasis Project in partnership with Monash University is pleased to announce the Ninth International Conference of the Dakhleh Oasis Project to be held on 11–13 June 2018 at the Monash Prato Centre, Italy. An opening reception is scheduled for the evening of 10 June 2018. The conference marks the 40th year of investigations in the Dakhleh Oasis in Egypt’s… Read more

Monash University Bachelor of Arts (Hons) alum and current MA student, Melanie Hechenberger was recently announced as a Global Winner of the prestigious Undergraduate Awards (UA), the world’s largest academic awards program. Melanie was named the Global Winner for her paper entitled, The Origin of Writing in Egypt: Administrative or Ceremonial? in the ‘Classical Studies &… Read more